Harry Potter and The Tomb of Hogwarts

Harry Potter and

The Tomb of Hogwarts

Chapter 29

Customs and Politics

Hermione shrieked.

More out of instinct that anything else, Harry quickly grabbed Hermione and clapped his hand over her mouth.

"Nice and quiet," Harry whispered in her ear. Hermione nodded and he took his hand away.

"Blimey, what's she doing here?" asked Ron.

"Well, like I said 'fore. I thought it'd be nice to find Grawpie a friend. Madam Maxine found her with her Dad and brother lying dead beside her. She's been staying in the mountains near Beauxbatons ever since, and when I tol' her about Grawp, well, she said it might be nice to put them t'gether, see what happens."

"So that's why she's crying?" Hermione asked. "Because of her Dad and brother?"

"Ah, no. That was many months ago now. Nah, she's unhappy cause in her clan's it's the man who's ta initiate relations but o'l Grawpie's from a clan tha's not s'posed to do nothin' till the lady giant invites him. That way the Gurg can control who's with who and tells the lady giants who they can be with. Well, tha's not the case with either o'them here and I can't seem to find how to get one o' them to get started with the other."

"Oh," they all said in unison.

"Yeh, well, that's what's happinin' now. She's upset cause he won't approach her while he's waitin' over there fer her to invite him and she can't figure out what she's got ta do?"

"Oh my" Hermione cried mournfully. "Well of course we'll help Hagrid. It's just, well, what can we do?"

"Well, as I'm Grawp's brother an all I thought it might be too intrudin' if I butted in, but maybe if you could speak t'her she might open up and talk to yeh while Ron, Harry and I talk to Grawp and find out what it is she's t' do to invite him."

"There's no way I'm letting Hermione alone with a giant, even if it is a woman," Ron blurted out. Harry shirked back, expecting Hagrid to take this personally, but Hagrid just nodded as though he'd expected it.

"All right then. You go with Hermione and Harry an' I will talk to Grawp."

Ron's eyes shot wide when he realised what had just happened and Harry got the sudden feeling like Hagrid had actually planned it as such which was confirmed when Hagrid had whispered "Tha' worked nicely," then gave Harry a quick a wink.

Harry couldn't suppress giving him a great big smile. "You know, you're a lot more cunning than people give you credit for."

Now it was Hagrid's turn to give Harry a big smile. But a moment later their faces turned serious as they approached Hagrid's little brother.

Grawp looked up at them and broke out in a huge smile that exposed his grossly uncared-for teeth. It was all Harry could do to keep down his lunch as he saw several small pieces of raw meat dangling ominously between his huge teeth and over his bloody and rotten gums. Harry surmised that Giant's didn't put much care into dental hygiene and wondered how Hermione would be holding up if Fratilda kept similar dental habits. He couldn't help but give a small sigh of relief when Grawp dropped his smile when Hagrid said hello.

"Hagger!" he replied loudly. "Grawp is happy to see Hagger! And Hagger bring friends Hermey and Harree too."

Harry wasn't sure if he was flattered or frightened that Grawp had remembered his name considering he'd butchered both Hermione's and Hagrid's.

"Well, I though' they might be able to keep you company. Harry here's quite the lady killer, yeh know," Hagrid added bluntly. Well that was real subtle, Harry thought.

"Er, yes. Hagrid mentioned you had a lady friend here and I wanted to see how you two are getting along," he shouted.

Grawp's face dropped a little.

"I don't thin' Fra-til-da is happy with Grawp. She doesn't invite Grawp. Grawp won't take wha's not his."

"What do you mean invite?" Harry shouted back.

"Hmm?"

"How is she supposed to invite you?"

"Like all giantess invite." Grawp replied simply, shaking his head as though Harry were daft.

"Oh," Harry answered. What he needed to do was to try to approach it from a different angle. "Well, in the wizarding world it's the men that invite the women by asking her on a date. For instance, when I started dating my current girlfriend Amanda I asked her to go with me to Hogsmeade for the day."

Grawp looked at him with wide eyes. Then he turned his eyes to Hagrid with a look of mixed anger and embarrassment. Then he whispered to Hagrid, though Harry could hear him, "Why Hagger not tell him Harree was a Gurg?"

"Wha? No, Harry's not a Gurg. Wizards don't have Gurgs 'xactly. I mean, they've got people in charge, but it's a lot different than our ways. Wizards and witches are free to mate whoever they want so long as they both agree."

Grawp shook his head. He obviously thought this was a barbaric way to do things.

"But there are different customs to how to approach someone," added Harry sensing they might be losing some kind of respect. "Sometimes you have to ask permission from someone's parents before you court someone, and normally you have to bring the other person home to meet your family, you know, to get their approval."

Grawp looked cautiously at Harry for a few moments, likely deciding if he was going to believe Harry, and finally decided he needed a second opinion from Hagrid.

"Oh sure," Hagrid bellowed. "All the time. Trust me, I live with them and even I don't understand all the rituals 'n stuff they do when two people get together. And once they do, good lord, there's even more stuff ta' do. They never stop. Ain't as simple as an invite and mating. Nah, Human's do all sorts o' things."

"But how do you do it?" Harry interrupted, feeling the opportunity might just be ripe. If he was lucky, Grawp would want to tell them how things should be done. Harry was not disappointed.

"Thar's only one way with a good giant's way to mate. She talks t' tha' Gurg and wiff permission she invites 'er intended. Well, thar's so few Females to Males in our world that most Males accept right aways, so Females have thar' choice. If he agrees, it's done. She can' be wiff no one but him and the Gurg. Aftar a year if they is still together which don' happen often, but it does happen, then they get Barnded and then not even the Gurg will touch 'er any mores. They are Barnded fer life."

"Wow," Harry said sounding a lot more impressed than he was. "But how exactly does she invite him?"

"She presents him with her Clan bracelet. If he takes it, he straps it to his arm here," he clapped his wrist, "and then tha' mate."

Well that's romantic, Harry thought.

Harry looked across the way and saw Hermione and Ron still talking to Fratilda.

Since it would be a bad idea for Grawp to catch on to what they were doing, which was basically manipulating him to get him and Fratilda together, Harry decided to change the subject to other rituals as he waited for Ron and Hermione to finish with his intended. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long.

They were in the middle of talking about food etiquette when Ron and Hermione walked up. Hagrid gave them a nod as he began asking Grawp how he would jerky his meat and the three of them trailed off a few yards away to talk. Harry told them what Grawp had told them and Hermione and Ron both nodded. Hermione gave a relieved kind of smile. Ron and Harry both looked questioningly at her.

"Well, this will be a lot easier than I thought it would be," She exclaimed with a nod.

"How's that?" Ron and Harry asked in unison.

"Because her problem is that she's waiting for the Gurg to give her his blessing?"

"The Gurg? Doesn't she understand there's no Gurg here? It's just Grawp," Harry exclaimed waving his hand over at him as he had just sat down so he could speak to Hagrid eye to eye.

"But there's also Hagrid," she smiled broadly.

Harry's eyes went wide. Ron furrowed his brow, but a moment later Ron cried, "OH!" as he worked it out in his head.

Harry and Hermione smiled and nodded back to him. "She thinks Hagrid's the Gurg," they whispered together.

"It makes sense, really," Hermione added. "I mean Hagrid is Grawp's older brother and he does tell him what to do and where to go, and you saw last year how Grawp acted when Hagrid wasn't around. As far as the two of them are concerned, well, he might as well be."

"So how do we fix this?" Ron said, growing suddenly tired of the whole affair.

Harry looked up and noticed it was getting awfully close to dusk. "Yeah, we should hurry this along. I'm not too anxious to walk through the forest at night."

At these words Hermione seemed to have taken a Pepper-up Potion and had called Hagrid over, told him what to do with Fratilda, shooed him on his way to her, and a few moments later it became obvious that Fratilda understood what had happened and stood so quickly Harry could feel the ground tremble beneath them. In her left hand she held out her bracer, a wide leather wristband with a silver plate, her family crest embroidered into it.

By the time they had finished, the had disappeared. Hagrid just shrugged it off.

"Thestrals don't like hangin around too long if they don't need to. They're likely half way back to the paddock by now. We might as well just walk it back. There's still enough time ta' get back 'fore dinner if we hurry."

And so Hagrid led Harry, Ron, and Hermione back through the forest, and for most of the journey it went quietly enough, although Harry had the distinct feeling that someone was watching them, and a few times he could have sworn that he heard, and once even saw, something following alongside them. Then, when they were just reaching the outskirts of the forest, Harry's suspicions were finally confirmed.

There were only about ten minutes of daylight left and the top of the Astronomy Tower was just coming into view when four Centaurs jumped out in front of them, each brandishing their bows and pointing them not at Hagrid, but at Ron, Hermione and Harry.

"Wha's this all abou'?" cried Hagrid angrily.

"We are here to tell you formally, Hagrid, that as of this moment our forest is forbidden to these three. If they enter again without our escort they will be treated as intruders and punished as such."

"Now wait jus' a darn minutes here," Hagrid bellowed back. "These three haven'a done nothing to you or yer kind. What makes you think you can jus' tell'em when they can and canna' come in here?"

Though he was looking around at the entire herd, Harry got the distinct impression that he was only telling this to Bane. Bane also seemed to get this impression as he was the only one who looked ready to attack, and no sooner had Harry thought this than Bane decided to draw back his bow as he aimed it directly at Hagrid's heart. Hagrid, for his part, showed no signs of being afraid.

"You have been warned," said Bane calmly.

Then, before Harry or anyone else could react, Bane dropped his bow and shot an arrow right between Hagrid's feet. Harry thrust his hand in his wand, but before he even had a chance to withdraw it Bane had turned and disappeared into the forest. When he looked around Harry saw that all the other centaurs had disappeared as well leaving both Ron and Hermione clutching each other's hand and looking visibly shaken.

Harry on the other hand was looking quite like Hagrid. He was neither scared or worried about what Bane might do. Bane was nothing compared to Voldemort and he'd faced the Dark Lord several times before.

No, Harry wasn't afraid at all. He was livid.

"WHO THE HELL DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?" he cried as they stepped out from the forest and into Hagrid's back yard. "HOW DARE THEY..."

"SHHH," Hagrid said as he waved his hand down at them. "The trees 'round here got ears o' their own. Don't say nothin till after we're inside."

Harry brooded while they made their way to the hut and was seething by the time Hagrid closed the door behind Ron and Hermione who were no longer holding hands and seemed more embarrassed than anything at their instinctual intimacy.

"Oh would you to just grow up, get a room, and get it over with," Harry cried. Nothing was going to stop him from speaking his mind at that moment. "For crying out loud," he continued, ignoring their feigned looks of offence, "Who do they think they are?"

"They think they're the rightful lords of this land," replied Hagrid simply, "and their not wrong neither. Yeh got to remember, Harry, that this was their land long before wizards showed up. It was Bane's grandfather who was heading the herd when Hogwarts was built and the wizards desecrated the forest."

"Desecrated the forest?" Harry cried indignantly. "They blame us for the forest being the way it is?"

"Course they do. We did it."

"What do you mean we did it," Ron interrupted. "The forest has been like that for centuries."

"Yeah," Hagrid sighed. "Ten centuries to be exact, give or take a few years."

"Hagrid, are you saying that the founding fathers put all those creatures into the forest?" Hermione asked.

"Well, not all o' them, but mostly, yea. But they needed some ways to protect the tomb..." Hagrid stopped dead. "I shouldn'ta said that. I really shouldn'a said that."

"Hagrid," Harry said, trying to keep his voice from betraying the anger that was directing itself at his friend, "What do you know about the tomb."

"I don't know nothin' and anything I do know I ain' saying. Dumbledore tol' me not t' say anything to you three about it and that's how it stays."

"Wait," Harry said abruptly, thoughts swimming in all directions from his head. "Why now? Why after all the times we went in there did they forbid just us three from going in there? It's the Tomb, isn't it. They know something about it, don't they? I'll bet all the galleons in my vault the Tomb is in that forest, isn't it. They found out I was looking for it and they decided I'm not worthy of finding it. That's it, isn't it."

"I don't know nothing about it and that's my final word. If yeh want some tea or ta talk about schoolwork or something else, that's fine. But I ain't saying another word about it and if yeh ask me again I'll boot yeh right outta here."

Harry resigned himself for the moment but tried several more times over the next half hour to weasel a bit more information out of Hagrid until they finally had to make their way back to the castle before they missed supper.

The next day, as Harry climbed the stairs to his classroom for his post-supper lesson with Dumbledore, he tried to remind himself that he could not let Dumbledore change the subject when he asked about the tomb. Unfortunately, right after they greeted each other, Dumbledore started straight in on another subject; one which had been on Harry's mind even more than the Tomb.

"Harry," Dumbledore began, "I can see something is troubling you, but before you begin asking questions about Delores Umbridge and Gilderoy Lockhart, let me see if I can explain a few of the more important details. Then, if you there is anything you wish to ask, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have to the best of my ability."

Harry nodded and sat down on one of the student benches while Dumbledore propped up one leg and sat side-saddle on Harry's desk.

"First, I am sure you want to know why it is that I have asked you not to speak out, even at school, about Delores Umbridge announcing her candidacy for Minister of Magic. My reason, I am sad to say, was quite deceitful, but I ask you to listen to my complete reason before passing judgement on me.

Harry nodded, so Dumbledore continued.

"While I have never run for a Ministry job myself, I do have a rather good mind for politics. As such, I have developed a very simple yet fundamentally persuasive campaign which, if you agree to it, should prove quite effective."

"You see, fifteen years ago when Voldemort gave you that scar, the wizarding community in general believed that it had been something you did, or else some extra power you had which allowed you to defeat him. Now, while it is true that you do have a remarkable power over him, very few know what that power is or how you came by it. None the less, after all you have been through and the public notice that Voldemort is back, most of the wizarding world is looking towards you for guidance. For instance, in preparation of this conversation I have had a bag of mail placed in your office. These are letters that I have had diverted to me until we had a chance to talk."

Harry looked over at his office door which was closed, so he waved his wand at it and the door swiftly opened even as he was still uttering 'Alohamora,' though he hadn't noticed.

Harry was so surprised by the sheer size of the overflowing sack of mail that he hadn't heard Dumbledore as he gave a pleased "hmm" to Harry's spell.

"As you can see, there have been several in the wizarding community who believe that you are destined to bring about the end of Voldemort."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that, sir. The Prophet's been telling everyone that I'm destined to kill Voldemort. I thought the Ministry was going to keep quiet about that."

"Indeed they have. However, as there are so few plausible reasons why you were there, the Ministry has left it simply as no comment. Regrettably, this has left a rather large gap of truth untold, and as you have seen in recent editions of the Daily Prophet, in the absence of truth people will search for their own answers. In our case, the most plausible reason for you, Voldemort, and myself all being in the same place together has only two realistic reasons. Of course, since you are once again the boy who lived, they have decided that you had gone to the Ministry either to destroy Voldemort or to retrieve some form of a weapon you can use against him instead of waiting for him to come after you. Ever since his returned was formally announced in The Daily Prophet, much of the Wizarding World has begun looking at your other encounters with Voldemort in a whole new light."

"So what does this have to do with why I can't say anything about Umbridge?"

"Nothing, and everything," Dumbledore sighed. "You see, had you spoken out against Delores too soon she would have had ample time to recover, or else she would have manipulated the information to her own design. However, there is only so far she can go before she slips up and as I predicted, it happened just a few days ago."

"What did she do?" Harry asked a little too anxiously.

"A reporter with the Quibbler asked her why she had allowed a fifteen year old boy to go to the Ministry alone while she was out talking to the Hogwarts Clan of Centaurs. That, it seems, was her breaking point and she proceeded to list everything she disliked about Hogwarts. This did not win the crowd over. But she was not finish, for she then proceeded to elaborate and took extra care to state that the first thing she would do in office was ridding the school of all non-humans. This might have warmed her to the crowd since many in the wizarding community fear those who are different than themselves."

"Like that isn't the kettle calling the pot black," he said under his breath while shaking his head.

"That is a fair assessment, but that was not nearly her biggest misstep. Would you venture a guess at what it was?"

"She probably started gloating over having you sacked," Harry answered mildly.

"You're on the right track, but it wasn't me she gloated over, it was you."

"Me? She gloated over me? After what happened in the forest? She's mad!"

"She may well be, but it did not affect her decision to speak out about you. No, I think what prompted her to speak out against you was a sudden and quite unintentional burst of anger and fear. Of course the anger comes from your being correct about Voldemort and having escaped from her office at the end of last term. More than that, however, I believe she is afraid, and rightfully so, that once you come out against her she will lose many of her supporters. Ironically, this is one place where she was right to worry and why we had to wait so long before announcing Gilderoy's decision to run for Minister of Magic."

Harry furrowed his brow in confusion but dared not interrupt the headmaster.

"Now if she were to make these kinds of mistakes too early, we might very well have another Ministry official as bad as or worse than Umbridge campaigning for Minister of Magic. Such a person might not only be cunning enough to know to start on the offensive against your vote, but more dangerously, we could end up with someone who was working for Voldemort either by choice or through outside manipulation. After all, as I'm sure you remember, much of the wizarding world in general considered Lucius Malfoy to be a highly respectable wizard until his capture at the Ministry."

Harry knew all too well what the wizarding world had thought about the elder Malfoy and what kind of influence he had held. It was he who was responsible for the unjust verdict that was brought down against Buckbeak just because his son had been stupid enough to insult him. And the year before that he'd actually gotten Dumbledore sacked from Hogwarts, even if it did require a good deal of intimidation and outright threats on his part.

"So instead of opening ourselves to such an unpredictable possibility we allowed Delores some time to build her campaign so that there would be no time for new competition when we announced our candidate. This brings us back to the mistake she made yesterday. Now, with everything you've just heard can you venture a guess as to what she might have done to protect herself from any attacks from you?"

Harry thought long and hard. If there was one subject he knew little about it was politics and since he had his Art of Duelling for the first half of the day, one of the classes he did not have was Magical Law and Politics. Still, something about the question seemed obvious and after a moment he took a guess.

"Well, she can't say I'm a liar because she accused me of lying about Voldemort and now everyone knows he's back, so her credibility on that is out the window, so the only other thing she can do is say that I've got something against her for being so tough on me as a Professor."

"Good, good. Keep going," Dumbledore said with a smile.

"So she's going to say that I don't like her because she had authority over me and I don't like having authority figures. She'll say I'm a loose cannon who gets lucky sometimes but isn't worth the risk."

"And?"

"And with my record for breaking rules she'll say that I'm only going off on her because she tried to do her job and punish me for my rule-breaking."

"Good. But how could this have led to her making a mistake?" Dumbledore continued.

"Well, she could have..." Harry thought, but he couldn't put it together. After a few moments he shook his head and Dumbledore nodded.

"Think about it from this perspective. What do she and our candidate have in common, and then ask what she could have said that would seem completely valid until Gilderoy announces his candidacy.

The thought hit him just as he was saying Lockhart's name, though it was actually looking into Dumbledore's eyes that inspired his answer.

"She said it wasn't just her, it was all professors. She made it out like even McGonagall got frustrated with me and brought up the Quidditch match from last year and the illegal D.A. Club. She made it out like nobody other than you could control me and even then it was only part of the time. She's trying to say that I'm going to speak out against her because she was my professor and I'm holding a grudge against her for it."

"And what happens when Gilderoy Lockhart announces he will be running against her for Minister of Magic?"

"Well, since he was my second year Defence against the Dark Arts Professor, her argument that I hate all my professors goes out the window. And when I say that I like having Hagrid and Firenze at Hogwarts, they're going to wonder why she seems to be going out of her way to bash me when everyone knows I'm going to bring about the end of Voldemort."

"I think you have a better grasp of politics than you give yourself credit for. And as of yesterday she made just such an announcement, so it will be in tomorrow evening's edition of the Daily Prophet that Gilderoy is running for Minister and that you will have been the person to nominate him. And, with your consent, I would like you to accompany myself and Professor David to the Ministry where a press conference will be held Thursday morning where Gilderoy will officially announce his candidacy and answer any questions the press might have."

"However, before you agree, I must warn you that the press will be quite stubborn in asking questions that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. In this case, it is quite likely they will beg for you to take the podium. I dare say it will be hard to remove Gilderoy from the podium, but he does like to play to the crowd and he will likely allow you to answer a few questions. I won't say I'm adverse to this idea because I am not. It would be best for Gilderoy's champagne if you voiced your support at this conference, but I will not pressure you to do so, especially since the reporters are not likely to stay on topic for long."

"You think they'll start asking about my Mum and Dad's murder and about the times I've come up against Voldemort."

"That is very likely, yes."

"Can Ron and Hermione come with me?"

"I think a little support may be in order, but I must restrict it to just the three of you," he added with a knowing look.

"Yes sir. Well, if it helps to keep Umbridge out of office, I'll do it."

"Wonderful. And Harry?"

"Yes sir?"

"Since you have proven yourself an able professor and wizard and considering your destiny, I think it might be a bit more appropriate if you were to call me Albus. Mind you this would only be during our private lessons or while we are in my office, but I do not think it necessary for you to continue to call me sir in private."

Harry didn't know what to say, so he just nodded. It had been a pretty odd feeling being treated like an adult over the past few months, between his Duelling Classes and the Staff Meetings, but the idea of addressing Professor Dumbledore by Albus was all but overwhelming.

"One last thing. I might recommend you to think about preparing a small speech before the conference. I've found in my past experiences with the press that it's much easier to control them if you direct them from the start, and it makes it easier to pick and choose the questions you wish to answer without the press singling out a single subject you didn't want to speak of if you did brush over it in that opening speech.

"So if I want to avoid talking about Voldemort Killing my parents, I should say whatever I am willing to say up front."

"Precisely. As the media would say, all they want is their sound bite. If they get it, even if it's not all they want, they'll only dig into things you say nothing about. Tell them you wish you could have known your parents but that you've come to terms with the loss, they may want to ask more, but they'll take what they can get. If you say nothing, they'll become relentless when you refuse to answer their questions."

"I think I'll have Hermione help me with this speech."

"That might be a good idea," Dumbledore replied with a smile.

And with that, they wrapped up their conversation about the following days festivities and continued on with the lesson which, as it turned out, was another round of shoot the balloon. He had already worked his way up to a regular score of seven balloons and had once gotten sixteen before finally missing.

As soon as they finished up, just before eleven, Harry rushed up to Gryffindor tower as fast as his exhausted body would take him.

Once he was finished telling Ron and Hermione about Lockhart's interview at the Ministry they couldn't wait to volunteer to go with him. Again he thought about how incredibly lucky he was to have friends like Ron and Hermione.

They all went to bed after one last game of speed chess. Ron had won as usual, but Harry had reduced him to only five pieces before Ron trapped him with a sacrifice of his queen. Harry, who couldn't believe his fortune, took the queen without a second thought, but a moment later Ron's knight took his rook and opened a straight line to Harry's king. Checkmate.

"You've got to start looking at least five moves ahead. There were at least four different times when you could'a had me but you weren't watching your moves far enough in advance. Look at Dumbledore. It sounds to me like that's exactly what he did with Umbridge."

"Yeah," Harry sighed as he pulled off his shirt and readied himself for bed.

After he changed, lying in bed for a few minutes, he looked to the roof of his bed and asked offhandedly, "You weren't just talking about chess back then, were you?"

Ron didn't reply at first.

Finally, after several moments passed he finally said "No" and said no more about it.

Harry continued to wait for Ron to respond, but he never did. A few moments later he heard Ron's soft snoring growing louder from and decided to let him sleep.

The next day was much too hectic for Harry to continue his talk with Ron regarding looking towards the future. But then, when he really thought about it, his head swam with all the thoughts about what his future might hold even over the next six months then.

Harry was able to spend an hour with Amanda before class, then he, Ron and Hermione all headed down to eat an early lunch before going to the Ministry.

Harry wasn't especially excited about going back to the Ministry, both because it had been the last place he'd seen Voldemort and also because it would mean he'd be in the same building where Sirius had died.

Harry told Amanda about feeling nervous and she for her part let him ramble off while she affectionately brushed his hair through her fingers. "Don't worry about it," she cooed in his ear. "Things always have a way of figuring themselves out. Besides, I mailed my parents about whether you could come out and staying with us for a couple of years after school. They said that if you wanted to, they'd love to have you."

Harry smiled but didn't respond. He really hadn't thought about moving in with her because when the thought about it, deep down, he could never run. Not when his own Mum and Dad stood their ground against Voldemort. They could have run, but they stayed and fought, and he would do the same.

There was no turning back, but he couldn't say this to her, at least at that point in time. He knew he had feelings for her, feelings he'd never had with another girl, not even Cho, and he didn't want to end what they had. He still kept hope that things would work out.

Harry changed the subject by mentioning what he was in store for him when he went to the Ministry. She continued to listen as he poured out his deepest fears about how they would react and what kinds of questions they would ask him. She'd only say "Mmm hmm" or "I'm sure you'll do fine", but just hearing her speak had a calming effect on him and by the time he went down to dinner with her he'd left all his worries back in his office.

When they arrived in the Great Hall they found it empty but with the side room door ajar. He gave Amanda another quick kiss which somehow lasted several minutes until a first year walked by and whistled at them, then gave her a quick peck, squeezed her hand, and headed off to the side room.

Inside he found Ron and Hermione already half done with their dinner while Dumbledore was switching between bites of some chicken casserole and talking to Professor McGonagall. As he sat down Dumbledore welcomed him with a very large smile.

"Ah, Harry. I was just about to send one of the ghosts out to find you," he said with a grin. "Well, you must hurry and eat something. We should be leaving in about..." He looked down at the same strange watch Harry'd seen him look at many times before which, as far as Harry could tell, had no way of telling time whatsoever, but it still worked for Dumbledore as he said, "Twelve more minutes. And as we don't want any uninvited eyes watching us leave at the same time well will be departing from this room. I have already turned the candlestick here into our portkey."

Harry nodded and dove into his plate, though he hadn't had any real appetite. However, his experience from Quidditch told him that even though his nerves told him he was not hungry, his body still needed the food so he pulled a pair of chicken breasts and a baked potato and started force-feeding himself until he could actually feel his body react to the food. Before he knew it he was gorging on the chicken and ate the entire potato in five bites.

He cleared his plate with three minutes to spare just as Professor McGonagall had left through the open door, locking it after she left and leaving the four of them sitting in silence.

"Well, as we still have a few minutes before we take our leave I would like to fill you in on a few last minute facts regarding our little trip. First and most important is that you should know that nobody is aware that you will be accompanying me to the Ministry. The only exceptions are Remus Lupin and Professor David who have accompanied Gilderoy and are waiting for us to arrive, as well as Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement who has increased security since the recent attack on the Ministry."

"Now, we are doing this for the political reasons I told you of earlier as well as due to safety measures. Even with the increased security measures at the Ministry we cannot take any chances which might allow Voldemort to set a trap for you. Of course it's very unlikely he would try anything again so soon after the last attack, especially when he has little idea what will take place there until it's much too late, but I would rather err on the side of caution."

"And one last thing before we leave. I think you should all be aware that while Gilderoy's condition is remarkably better than he was just six months ago, he is not quite as well as publicised. We feel it necessary to give off the impression that he has completely recovered. However, one of the few things that seems completely blocked from his memory is the day he went down into the chamber with you two. The doctors at St. Mungo's are of the opinion at this point that this is not due to the charm he cast, but was instead a simple matter of his subconscious trying to deny what he'd done. It is likely that sooner or later he will remember, but until then we have decided that it best to confirm that he went down with you but was incapacitated during the accident that caused the cave-in. I do apologise for putting you in this position but I only just yesterday discovered that this part of his memory had not been recovered."

Harry and Ron both smiled and nodded.

"Thank you. It means a great deal to me how well you three are handling everything that has happened over the past year. You are truly three of the most incredible young wizards and witches of your age, and it is truly an honour to be your headmaster."

All three of them blushed as Dumbledore smiled and picked up the candlestick, walked over to the fireplace and waited for Harry, Ron and Hermione to join him.

"Well, we have just a few more moments before we leave so everyone get hold of a branch."

They each took a branch and waited.

"Three..." Dumbledore counted down, "Two... One..."

Harry once again felt the familiar hook pulling behind his navel as the floor flew out from under his feet and then, the room was gone.

Coming Soon

Chapter 30